Website localisation adapts a site’s text, navigation and customer journey for a target language and market. It can help people use a service in their preferred language, but it does not automatically double customers or profits. See our website localisation services.
International expansion involves research, translation, technology, local compliance, support and fulfilment. Choose the first market where customer demand and operational readiness justify the investment; a translated site alone is not a complete market-entry strategy.
The practical challenge is deciding which audience and website journey to localise first. This article sets out seven implementation stages, from planning and keyword research to technical release checks and continued improvement.
Your website is one part of the customer’s experience. Localise the content and interactions people need to understand products, contact you and complete transactions. Confirm that your organisation can also deliver the local prices, customer support and terms it promises.
For example, a UK retailer entering France may need French product descriptions, euro prices where relevant, French-language delivery and returns information, local address validation and customer support. Translating the homepage without these steps can leave the purchase journey unusable.
What is Website Localization?
Website localisation means adapting content and presentation to the language, culture and other needs of a specific locale. The W3C explains that this differs from internationalisation, the design and engineering work that makes localisation easier.
Website localization involves adapting an existing website to the target market’s language and culture. Localisation, in other words, means making local. What does localisation mean is it’s the process in which you adapt your website to a different cultural and linguistic context — one of your target market.
Localisation is more than translating website text. It may involve changes to interface labels, images, measurements, prices, names, addresses, legal notices and support content. A multilingual plugin may help manage versions but cannot automatically verify accuracy or the suitability of the customer journey.
Machine translation can accelerate drafting for appropriate low-risk content, but it must be reviewed to the level the content requires. Brand copy, contractual terms, important product information and regulatory statements can need expert translation or specialist review. No particular translation method guarantees results.
Customers need accurate language and an understandable buying process. Local currency, delivery options, contact channels and consumer terms should also match what the business can actually provide.
Consider Investing in Website Localisation
Before translating, decide the minimum viable set of pages to launch in a new locale. Include any product, enquiry, checkout, customer-service and policy pages needed to finish the user’s task. Our website localisation team can discuss the scope and language pair.
As a website localisation agency, Locate Translate follows website localization best practices. Of course, languages and buying preferences change with change in the country, even within the same country, languages and cultures vary from region to region. That makes localisation a really hard task for a business to undertake but with us as your language partner, we’ll shoulder much of that overwhelming process and leave you worry-free to concentrate on scaling your business to new markets.
Our Localisation Services
Entering a market with a different language and customer journey? Our website and app localisation services can help you adapt content and interfaces.
Without further ado, let’s kick-start your website localization in 7 easy steps.
1. Plan for Website Localisation in Advance
Day in and day out, billions of people use the internet for all sorts of purposes from personal to business. Your products have more potential buyers today compared to a decade ago. The advent of the internet not just expedited the process of globalisation, but also made global expansion a possibility for businesses.
Today, anyone with a localised website can sell in any corner of the world. As a result, brands have become truly international by leveraging the internet to connect with more potential consumers.
When Exactly to Begin your Localisation Process?
Start internationalisation during initial design when possible, but an established site can still be localised in phases. Set a first locale, content inventory, responsible owners, budget and release criteria before translation begins.
When you’re designing your website, get on board a localisation service provider to help you with website localization. Or else, if you’ve got an existing website and are planning a major update, while you roll out the update, factoring in website localisation will make sense.
Create a list of localisable strings including buttons, product names, page headings, email templates, checkout notices, validation errors and policies. Agree a glossary and style guide so future updates use consistent terminology.
Test marketing phrases, calls to action and search terms with a person familiar with the target market. Layouts must allow text expansion and different scripts. The W3C internationalisation guidance describes these requirements; avoid quoting unsupported historical consumer percentages as if they were current facts.
Use flexible layouts that accommodate longer labels, right-to-left text and non-Latin scripts. Avoid fixed-width buttons or untranslated text embedded in images; test real translated content on mobile and desktop.
2. Identify your Target Market
Do not attempt every language at once. Select a first region and language on evidence of demand, business feasibility and capacity to support users after launch. Start with a limited set of useful pages and expand when the approach is working.
Review sales enquiries, analytics, customer interviews and local search behaviour. Define both language and region: French in France and French in Canada may require different terminology, regulations, currencies and delivery arrangements.
Write a concise market-launch brief recording the target users, tasks, key search terms, expected content, fulfilment constraints, local approvals and success measures such as completed forms or purchases.
3. Constitute a Team
A small pilot need not require a large workforce, but it does need clear accountability. Assign responsibility for source content, translation review, technical integration, in-market approval, launch testing and subsequent updates. One person may cover several roles.
Choose remote or on-the-ground research as appropriate to the budget and risk. Check support enquiries and search data, then use a local reviewer to test terminology, imagery, prices, cultural context and any regional claims.
Agree the project workflow: export approved source strings, translate and review, integrate into the CMS, test the whole journey and obtain sign-off before launch. Retain a glossary and a process for changes to translated versions.
Errors in prices, instructions, product descriptions or eligibility information can mislead customers. Choose translation and review expertise appropriate to the content rather than assuming native-speaker status alone guarantees accuracy. See how to prepare your website for localisation for more detailed readiness checks.
Preserve the intended brand message while allowing wording to change when idioms, humour or cultural references do not translate naturally. Review the site’s key promises, product names, calls to action and terms with a local-language specialist.
4. Do Keyword Research
Research keywords separately for each target locale rather than translating a UK keyword list word for word. Find the terms people actually use for the product or service, their intent and any locally preferred names, spellings or units.
The appropriate search platform varies by country and audience. Verify up-to-date search engine usage and local features for the selected market rather than assuming all international markets use the same platform.
For each target-language landing page, agree an appropriate search topic, helpful headings, translated page title and meta description, internal links and a clear call to action. Avoid stuffing translated keywords into unrelated content.
5. Internationalize your Website
Internationalisation is the technical preparation that allows a product to support different locales without rebuilding it for every translation. It includes Unicode handling, flexible layouts, translation-ready strings and correct locale-dependent formatting. It is not another name for translating content; see the W3C definition.
Use UTF-8 in content, databases and forms; declare page language and support local scripts, including right-to-left direction where relevant. Test actual translated characters, names and mixed-script values. The W3C internationalisation checklist includes encoding, layout and language navigation.
Keep translatable strings separate from source code, do not concatenate partial sentences and use locale-aware formatting for dates, addresses, prices and numbers. Record context for interface strings, placeholders, validation errors, buttons and email templates.
Only offer local pricing, shipping terms, taxes and payment methods that are operationally accurate. Check local legal and consumer-information requirements with appropriate advisers rather than treating a translation as approval to sell there.
Step 5 deliverable — language launch specification: give each translated page its own crawlable URL (for example, /fr/ for French) and a visible language switcher. When equivalent pages actually exist, use Google Search Central’s hreflang guidance for reciprocal language or region annotations; check each page’s canonical URL. Google recommends locale-specific URLs and warns against forcing visitors to an inferred language using automatic redirects. Do not invent alternate pages or hreflang references before publishing them.
6. Test your Localised Website
Test translated pages with a proficient reviewer and representative users before launch. Evaluate meaning, functional behaviour, accessibility and the full task from landing page through checkout or enquiry.
The technical checks should cover translated URLs and navigation, mobile layouts, keyboard and screen-reader labels, directionality, field validation, language switching, forms, analytics, payment and delivery rules, and transactional emails.
- Locale URLs, reciprocal
hreflangwhere applicable and working language switching - Responsive mobile/desktop layouts, local scripts and right-to-left layout where applicable
- Names, time, date, weights, measurements, etc.
- Entry fields
- Hyperlinks
- Image appropriateness
- Broken strings/design
- Form functionality
- Shopping Cart
- Load time etc.
The language checks should cover terminology, tone, untranslated strings, images containing text, cultural suitability, regulated claims and readable errors. Test full journeys in context rather than reviewing only a spreadsheet of isolated strings.
- Grammatical mistakes
- Spelling errors, wrong use of words, punctuation errors
- Inappropriate or offensive texts
- Presence of cultural taboos
- Misuse of keywords
- Readability and appeal of messages
- Untranslated strings
Measure mobile performance after translated fonts and media have been deployed. Fix actual bottlenecks such as oversized images or blocking scripts; localisation need not significantly reduce speed if assets and layouts are managed well.
Choose a repeatable set of pre-launch tests, record speed and conversion baselines and compare like-for-like experiences. Avoid assumptions that all visitors have the same attention span or that rankings alone measure localisation success.
Compress large media, verify caching and test whether translated graphics, embedded videos or web fonts create unnecessary loading costs. Use performance measurements to decide what to optimise.
7. Keep Localizing
Localisation continues after launch. Appoint an owner to update translated product details, prices, terms, forms and support content when the source changes, and use version tracking to find outdated pages.
Monitor relevant country/language traffic together with enquiries, completed orders, help requests, abandoned steps and untranslated pages. Improve the local experience using observed outcomes, not an assumed immediate revenue boost.
Localisation can be an overwhelming and daunting task that’s why you need a reliable language partner by your side to shoulder your burden. You can outsource your website localization needs to Locate Translate. We offer top-notch website localisation services to our clients worldwide. Connect at hello@locatetranslate.co.uk or call +44 208 609 4852 for more information!
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